Lara Returns To The GameBoy (2001)

The Croft Times

June 24, 2001 Coinciding with Lara Croft's feature film debut, Activision, Inc. will launch Tomb Raider: Curse of The Sword for GameBoy Color the week of June 25. The game challenges players to take control of the first lady of adventure in a globe-hopping quest to recover a cursed artifact. "Tomb Raider is undeniably one of the hottest properties in interactive entertainment today," states Kathy Vrabeck, executive vice president, Activision Global Publishing and Brand Management. "As the leading third- party publisher of GameBoy Color titles we're thrilled to bring Lara's latest adventure to the hand held video game system." Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword takes players from New York rooftops to New Orleans swamplands as they run, jump, climb and fight to uncover the mystery behind a sacred sword. Throughout the game, players will explore a variety of action-packed locations including abandoned subways, swampy jungles and even an underwater submarine.

Additionally, Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword comes to life with amazing animation effects and a variety of puzzles such as reactivating generators to access elevators and firing a cannon to clear a room.

"Eidos is thrilled to have a Tomb Raider product on shelves during the run of the Tomb Raider feature film," said Paul Baldwin vice president of marketing, Eidos Interactive, Inc. "In addition, the GameBoy Color game taps into a new market for the franchise."

Tomb Raider Favourite Amongst Criminals (2001)

The Croft Times

July 15, 2001

Tomb Raider (the game and the movie) were recently featured in two top-ten charts, but we're not so sure if that is a good thing...

Software First has released results of a survey they have conducted, which lists the top 10 games that were bought by inmates through their order system.

It makes quite an interesting (if maybe worrying) viewing :

Tomb Raider (all) PlayStation
Resident Evil (1, 2 & 3) PlayStation
Syphon Filter (1 & 2) PlayStation
Metal Gear Solid PlayStation
GTA (1 & 2) PlayStation
Gran Turismo (1 & 2) PlayStation
Colin McRae (1 & 2) PlayStation
Medal of Honour PlayStation
Carmageddon PlayStation
Rainbow Six PlayStation

Notice the presence of GTA and Carmageddon, hardly surprising...

Meanwhile, MediaForce, an digital copyright enforcement firm specializing in Internet anti-piracy solutions, announced the top ten pirated movies on the Internet for the month of June.

MediaForce's copyright enforcement service uses highly advanced anti-piracy technology to detect and deter theft of digital music, software, images, and movies on the Internet. Unlike conventional anti-piracy solutions, MediaForce's service scans the Internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week identifying websites, news groups, and peer-to-peer groups like Aimster or Gnutella that host pirated materials. MediaForce's patent-pending technology identifies pirated material regardless of a file's watermarking, compression methods or sampling rates.

Three of the titles on the Top Ten list – Tomb Raider, Shrek, and Pearl Harbor – are current box-office hits, with a combined cumulative gross of $542 million in box office receipts.

The MediaForce "Top Ten" for the month of June is as follows, ordered by frequency of piracy:

Snatch (Screen Gems)
Pearl Harbor (Buena Vista)
Traffic (USA Films)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Paramount Pictures)
Shrek (Dreamworks SKG)
The Matrix (Warner Brothers)
Gone in 60 Seconds (Touchstone Pictures)
Hannibal (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
Gladiator (Dreamworks SKG)
X-Men (20th Century Fox)

"The availability of first-run films on the Internet – including movies released to theaters as recently as three weeks ago – shows that the threat to the motion picture industry of digital piracy is very real," noted Aaron Fessler, Chief Executive Officer of MediaForce. The MPAA says video piracy costs the studios over $2.5 billion a year.

Lara's Creator And Her Chest (2001)

The Croft Times

July 15, 2001

The man who created Lara Croft says he wishes her breasts hadn't been made so big.

Toby Gard, who used to work for Core Design, says she was never meant to have such a big chest.

Mr Gard isn't entitled to any of the millions the character has made because his former employers own the rights.

But he says he's not bothered about the money and approves of Angelina Jolie playing the role of Lara in the Tomb Raider film.

Mr Gard told the UK newspaper 'The Mirror': "I just wish that when she was taken out of my hands they hadn't made her boobs so big. She was never meant to be a page-three-type girl."

"But I was always convinced she would take off. As for the money, I couldn't really care less. I've never been one for material stuff - it's never occurred to me to even buy a lottery ticket."

"I still get a thrill when Lara is in the headlines. I hear people chatting about her down the pub. Sometimes I feel like chipping in with, 'Hey, I invented her'."

He added: "The new film sounds great and I approve of Angelina Jolie for the role of Lara. She's just sparky and wild enough to do her justice."

Next Generation On Schedule (2001)

The Croft Times

August 5, 2001 In the last couple of months some readers have expressed concern regarding the next instalment of Tomb Raider, the so called next generation Tomb Raider. Although Core Design isn't prepared to release any more information regarding this game until later this year, we've decided to make a status update so that all the nonsense regarding the game will stop. First, let us assure you that the game is being developed and will be released late 2002. This game is in development for about two years now and is being done by Core's largest development team so far. The game's development is on schedule and "we're very happy with the results so far," Susie Hamilton, Core's PR Manager, told The Croft Times last week. "We can assure all TR fans that Lara will still be the same in the fundamental beliefs/morals/style/looks etc... just a whole lot better!!!" she added. The latest official statements from Core were made at a press conference last February. At this conference, Core hinted several details about the game; perhaps the most interesting that it won't carry the Tomb Raider title. Certain rumours about the episodic nature of the game were also addressed by Core, who stated that new episodes will not be distributed on-line but that some game-related extras, like character bios and portraits, will be.

Core also revealed some gameplay details, mainly that the game will feature some light role-playing elements like character attribute development. Rather than allowing the player to change or choose the characters attributes; some actions, like sprinting and other special movements, will become more effective the more they are used. This will allow that certain areas in the game will only be accessible by characters that have reached a certain proficiency level at certain attributes.

A new male playable character, whose name is not yet confirmed, will be introduced, although Core recently confirmed that this will not allow for multiplayer gamming. Not much was revealed about him or his relationship with Lara, but it was hinted that his motivations are similar to Lara's.

Lara and her companion will be able to move through the environment in a much more natural fashion; Core has moved away from the traditional grid-based world and is trying to achieve a much more true to live gamming environment, making it more fluid and organic. The game's environment will be more exciting and interactive; the characters will be able to explore it completely, accessing every place and doing whatever they feel like doing. If any character (or should we say any player?) feels like jumping trough a window, (s)he can do it.

The gameplay will not differ that much from traditional Tomb Raider gameplay - which is good; after all we do love TR's gameplay - and the style will range from stealth-based to traditional Tomb Raider exploration.

Not much was revealed about the game's plot, although Core restated that the game's themes will be much darker that the traditional TR games, but again the company didn't went further into details.

The basic story goes something like this: While visiting a friend in Paris, Lara is framed for a serious crime, forcing her to evade the law. Paris will then be the first of several huge playable areas featured in the game, and will have Lara breaking into, and possibly vandalizing, the famous Musée du Louvre. No more was revealed...

Although we realize this is much less than what you want to know, this is official information, all confirmed this week, not rumours, so we do expect it will be enough to keep your spirits rested until more details are revealed later this year, and also to stop all the nonsense and rumours floating around.